The End of Relay...

It is a sad time when I have to write about my last Relay conference.  I really wish it didn't have to end.  For those of you who don't know Relay is a 10 month training and discipleship programme run by UCCF:The Christian Unions for recent graduates.  I am now in my tenth and final month and have just returned from Relay 3 (the final conference).

At the conference we were spending time looking at 1 Corinthians 12-14 and the theme of Church.  This was really quite helpful as many of my readers will know that I have been thinking a lot about the church over the past months.  In addition to this we were able to spend much time chilling out with each other and learning about each others year on Relay.  Three sessions of the conference were dedicated to End of Year Presentations.  Beforehand I thought that 60 odd 3 minute presentations would be a nightmare to sit through as everyone would be saying the same thing but I was totally struck by the creativity, the honesty, the differences between amazing relay years and difficult relay years.  I reckon that these sessions were by far one of the best things about Relay 3.

So without further-a-do here is my End of Year Relay Presentation.  Sit back and enjoy.

Thank you to all the people who made my Relay year so amazing.  I love you all.

God Bless

Interview with Rebecca Manley Pippert

Found a great interview done during New World Alive this year.  Nay Dawson a UCCF Team Leader from down south speaks with Rebecca Manley Pippert.  Rebecca is the person who wrote the amazingly helpful and encouraging book call "Out of the Salt Shaker".

Check out the video and see what you think.

Dads being Dads

It's been a while since I last posted something on my blog but I've been away on Mission at Sheffield Hallam with Sheffield Hallam CU and haven't worked out an easy way to blog from my phone.

Today I was really struck by how much I love seeing Dads being Dads.  I had just got off the Metro from my 1-2-1 with Mike, a student in Sunderland, and was walking home and in front of me was a Dad walking with his young daughter and talking with her and helping her to properly 'find her feet' along the pedestrian walkway.  When they got to the road he taught her to stop and to look and listen out for cars before crossing the road.  It was such a simple thing and something I imagine every parent will do but I was really encouraged to see a Dad being a good Dad with his young daughter.  I was reminded also of a similar time when I was walking home and a Dad had arrived home from work and his children ran out with such excitement to welcome him home.  That experience put a massive smile on my face and warmed my heart.

I don't know why I was particularly struck by these simple yet so moving experiences.  Today I realise it was down to a God moment.  In our 1-2-1 we have been studying the book of Colossians and today we were looking at Chapter 3 v 18 - 4 v 1.  The passage is titled in the ESV as "Rules for Christian Households" and talks much of husbands, wives, children, slaves and masters.  In my little faith I wondered how our study would go as Mike is neither married, nor living with parents, nor a slave or a master.  So it was extremely encouraging to find out that he has been reading a book about God's ideal for men called "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge.  We were able to chat about the role of men in our society, on how even at the very beginning of time men had responsibility and yet refused to use it (i.e. at the fall Adam was with Eve when she took and ate of the fruit - he could have stopped her had he taken his responsibility seriously).  We also talked about how the roles of men and women have shifted over the centuries into modern living.  Admittedly some of our ideas may have been flawed but we were able to trace much of the problems with families today down to men not taking up their responsibility.

Let me try to explain some of our thought processes.

We often think that "Wives, submit to your husbands" sounds really harsh and very 1950's however when we looked at what the Bible was really saying we realised that if God created man to be at the head of the family and responsible for the family then wives will naturally submit to their husbands in a loving way.  However, it was also very clear that the statement to husbands ("Husbands, love your wives") was vital to this.  For example if a husband loves his wife, if he spends time with her, nourishes her, supports her and leads her then she will instinctively submit to him.  If however the man doesn't take responsibility in the family and doesn't love his wife as he should then she will have to take more responsibility over the family and therefore decrease how much she actually submits to him.  When we saw this we began understanding why much of our culture thinks this way about the roles of men and women (i.e. that men and women are equal in everything).  Thinking back to the beginnings of the feminist movement did it all start because men were not taking their responsibility seriously?  Where they spending much of their time at work and not being sensitive to the needs of their family?  Where men seeing the need to be the "bread winner" over the need to love and cherish?  Both Mike and I are not well versed in history but it gave us real food for thought.  We both remembered the verse in Genesis 3:16 where God declared to Eve "your desire shall be for [or against] your husband, and he shall rule over you".  God showed that husbands will rule over their wives however women will desire to take that responsibility.  I interpret this to mean that women desire this because husbands will not bear all the responsibility that they should bear - they will try to delegate some of the responsibility to their wives until ultimately their wives will be 'earning the bread' and they will be sitting at home playing the Playstation or the Xbox.  As a little disclaimer I am not saying that women should never work and should stay at home in the style of the 1950's housewife I am simply trying to put forward the idea that men need to step up and take hold of the responsibility that they have been given so that they can love their wives all the more.

Okay so this post is all about Dads being Dads and all I've really ranted about is the fact that husbands need to man up and take responsibility.  Well I believe there is a clear connection.  If fathers lead their family well, by taking the responsibility for the family, then his children will see that strong Biblical role model and will seek to model it in their lives.  I also believe that his children need to have their father around.  So fathers should provide for their family but that does not just mean by bringing home the money for food, clothes and shelter.  It also means that he should provide for them spiritually, emotionally and physically.  It means that he should physically be around his children and he wife, spending time with them, loving them and caring for them, it means that he should be leading his family by teaching them (like the father I met on my way home) and it also means that he should share the Gospel with them.  

On Sunday at church we had two baby dedications and our Pastor shared some bits around the Bible about how parents (and particularly fathers) should love and care for their children.  We looked at a passage in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 which says "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."  As men who are or may become fathers we should desire to teach our children the truths of the Gospel so that they may love the Lord with all their hearts, souls and minds.

If we love our children and lead the family well our children will desire to obey their parents - much in the same way as when we understand the Gospel and see Jesus as our loving Saviour and Lord we desire to obey Him out of an over pouring of joy in Him.

However, the passage in Colossians warns fathers not to provoke their children.  What does this mean?  Well I believe it is speaking to fathers who are harsh and critical of their children instead of encouraging them and equipping them for life.  I was blessed to have a father who encouraged me immensely and therefore I respect him and look up to him massively.  He has had an enormous impact on who I am today.  However, I know for some the opposite is true because their dad never told them he loved them, or was constantly critical or perhaps even mistreated them.  Paul is writing to encourage fathers to lead their family well.  Again if they lead well and encourage and equip their children then their children are more likely to obey them because their father is a role model to them.

So I guess that is why I love to see Dads being Dads.  I know that I want to be a loving husband to my wife and when God blesses us with children I know I want to be a father that leads by example.  A father of repentance and not one of religion (or rules) but one of grace, just like my father and my loving Heavenly Father.

Day 1 of "Pointless?" NCU Main Events Week

Well Main Events Week at Northumbria has well and truly started and I've just arrived back home from Day 1 of Main Events Week at Northumbria Christian Union (my former CU) where I have the privilege of being able to train, equip and support the students in the CU with the power of the Gospel and call it work. 

We started the day by "Talking to God before talking to people about God" (Gram Seed) which was a blessed time.  Getting excited about the Gospel and sharing it was so much fun.  The CU has bought a Gazebo which we put up in the wonderfully sunny but still rather cold Quad in the middle of the university.  We put up a few tables with gospels and a quote from Lady Gaga about love which people could come and assess whether they agreed with the quote or disagreed.  The quote was about love and we were asking whether people thought this was real love.  

"I want the deepest, darkest, sickest parts of you that your afraid to share with anyone because I love you so much"

Lady Gaga

This was a really easy way to get people thinking about what real love is and then talk to them about the theme of love that comes from the Gospel.  We had some really interesting responses to this quote - some largely because of how they viewed Lady Gaga :)

We had people playing acoustic music in order to draw attention and create a buzz which was an awesome idea.  Some of the CU members got stuck into questionnaires with students around the quad which brought about some exciting conversations and invitations to the rest of the weeks events.

The best part of the day had to be the conversations we were able to have with people when we invited them to write down on a massive roll of paper their answer to the question "What is your purpose in life? - Beer/Sex/Jesus/Something Else?"  There were some 'interesting' answers to say the least but I managed to butt into a conversation with one of the CU members and two Muslim guys.  We stood around shivering while having a really interesting conversation about what we believe and basically having the opportunity to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ.

We estimated that we must have spent an hour chatting to these guys from topics ranging from Trinity, to authenticity of the Bible, to literal and figurative translations of things in the Bible, to what grace is all about and why we trust in Jesus Christ as our God and our Salvation.  Massive topics and much for me to come home and look into so that I may be able to answer some more of the questions that come my way from our new friends.  I pray that we may have knocked down some of the barriers that were preventing our friends from seeing the Truth.  I am thankful that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that these sorts of miracles happen and I pray that massive miracles will happen on Northumbria Campus this week and into the future.

Throughout the week I'll try and write about what amazing things have been happening and any specific prayer requests.

But for now much praise for the ideas and planning that has come to fruition and the response we received today - Praise The Lord [ PTL for short apparently :) ]

A brief look at Malachi

Well I’m still at the Relay 2 Conference but there has been bombarded with so much great teaching that I felt I had to blogify some of it so I could articulate my thoughts and pass them on to dear friends.

We have been studying the book of Malachi (a book I’ve often read but just skimmed over).  I have to admit it was difficult for me to grasp the meaning of what was being said in Malachi when I first read through it, however, having wrestled with it a bit I’ve come to a deep realisation that God is calling his people to be faithful to Him, to worship him wholeheartedly and to trust in his promise of one who will come to refine our lives (Jesus).

Our God is a loving God, a jealous God, a just God, an awesome God who holds his created universe in his hand and he holds us close to his heart.  Yet we often forget him, ignore him and even reject him.  We don’t follow his rule and reign and instead we worship something else or our selves. 

This was the problem with Israel in the day of Malachi.  We’ve only worked our way to the 3rd chapter so I don’t want to give anything away, but it is clear that by ourselves we cannot achieve a righteousness worthy of God.  We need the one that is sent by God, the one who is God, the one who is the “pure offering” and the “refiner” of our lives so that we may be acceptable to God. 

Thankfully that person, Jesus, has come and has offered us the gift of grace through his death on the cross, so that we might be forgiven and refined by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I’ve really been challenged that I need to remain faithful to God in every aspect of my life.  God rebukes the Israelites in respect to their faithlessness to their wives, and this has given me a clear picture of what being faithful to God really is.  I’ve been thinking about it this way, I love my wife with all my heart but I dare say there will be times in my life when something else looks/feels more appealing than her.  Being faithful means not falling into that temptation but turning away from it and back to the one I love.  And so it is the same with God.  There will be times when something in my life seems more important or relevant than God but I need to look at God and his awesomeness and see what he has done for me and take an overwhelming sense of pleasure in that and therefore forget about the other stuff.  By constantly looking at God’s greatness I will be faithful to him because I delight in him.

I’m not presuming this will be easy and I expect that I will fail countless times at it.  That is why my life has to be a life of constant repentance, as I gaze into the brilliance of the grace he has given to each of us.

Have Christians perverted what the Bible says by creating the Doctrine of the Trinity?

The Debate over the Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important in the Christian faith, yet it also causes much confusion and objection, especially because the term ‘Trinity’ is not itself found in the Bible.  This term was developed primarily by Tertullian, a Greek scholar, who described the Godhead by the word trinitas.  Tertullian wrote, “I testify that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other... My assertions is that the Father is one, the Son is one, and the Spirit is one - and that they are all distinct from each other.”

From this comes our three affirmations which are central to the doctrine of the Trinity:

1. There is but one God;
2. The Father, the Son and the Spirit is each fully and eternally God;
3. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit is each a distinct person.

Nowhere does the Bible explicitly teach this combination of assertions. It may, nevertheless, be claimed that the doctrine of the Trinity is a profoundly appropriate interpretation of the biblical witness to God in the light of the ministry, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus.

In order to show that the doctrine of the Trinity is in fact a true Biblical understanding, it will be necessary to show that the above affirmations are found in the Bible.  Below is a brief study on the Scriptural basis for the affirmations.  I do not profess to have included everything as to do so would require a lot more study and I would end up writing multiple books on the subject, however it should make it clear that Scripture is definitive on the doctrine of the Trinity.

There is but one God

How can there be a Trinity when the Old Testament insists there is only one God?  If the Old Testament is right, how can John assert that the Word (later identified with Jesus) is God?  Does this mean that the one God became a human being and so all of God was on earth?  Does it imply there are two (or, with the Holy Spirit, three) Gods?  We can attempt to look, only briefly, at what the Bible says on this topic.

Firstly, it is quite right that the Old Testament teaches that there is only one God or, better, that God is one.  We need only look at Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” What is more, the New Testament also affirms the same doctrine.  For example, James 2:19 reads, “You believe that there is one God. Good!”  As in Deuteronomy, an even better translation would be, “You believe that God is one.”  The unity of God and the fact that there are no other gods besides him is a foundational doctrine of the Bible.

Secondly, the New Testament also teaches that Jesus was divine.  John 1:1 reads, “God was the Word.”  This verse is only one of several verses indicating this fact.

The question therefore must be are there not three Gods?  The answer is that the New Testament does not give an explanation, but it does give facts, which were later used by the early church to make an explanation of how there can be three beings but not more than one God.  As pointed out above, the New Testament makes clear that there is only one God. The doctrine of “God is one” is foundational New Testament teaching, just as it is also true in the Old Testament.  The New Testament also makes clear that Jesus (and also the Holy Spirit) is God.  This can lead us to think that all of God perhaps became incarnate in Jesus and then in the Holy Spirit. This theory, however, does not sit well with New Testament teaching.  Jesus is constantly distinguishing himself from the Father.  For example, in John 11:41–43, he thanks the Father that he has heard him and then goes on to speak of the Father sending him.  This is part of an ongoing dialogue between the Father and the Son.  There is a constant discussion about the Son and the Father, which makes them equal, but at the same time distinguishes them.  Thus the Father did not become incarnate in Jesus. 

In the three subheadings below, Scripture will specifically show us that God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are all God.  If they are all God, and the verses above are true then the Bible has given perfect proof that there is a Holy Divine Trinity of one God in three Persons.

God the Father is God

Throughout Scripture the Father is acknowledged as fully Divine, He is fully God.  Because this fact is recognised as beyond question, a mere sampling of biblical evidence will be presented.  1 Corinthians 8:6 reads, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” and Deuteronomy 4:35-39 outlines that, “To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him … that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”  These two verses make it blatantly clear that there is only one God – God the Father – and that there is no other god besides him.  Psalm 96:4-5 confirms this further by saying that there is only one God and that there are no other gods anywhere that are equal to Him, “For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.  For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols”.

Jesus Christ is God

John 1:1-4 clearly affirms the full deity of Christ, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”  Here Christ is referred to as “the Word”, and John tells us that he was “with God” and “was God”.  The Greek text echoes that of Genesis 1:1 and therefore reminds us that John is talking about something that was true before the world was made.  He is telling us that the Word is God and was always fully God.  In John 1:14 he enlightens us further by declaring that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  John proclaims most clearly that the Word is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is God and was with God at the beginning of time.  Paul writes to the church of Colosse saying that, “In him [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” Paul therefore makes it clear that Jesus is fully God.  Jesus himself confirms these statement in John 10:30 when he says, “I and the Father are one” and when he does not correct Thomas’ realisation that Jesus is “My Lord and my God” in John 20:27.

These verses provide major evidence to prove that Jesus Christ is truly God – and as such is truly the second Person of the triune Godhead.

The Holy Spirit is God

To complete the doctrine of the Trinity, it must be shown and proven from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is also God.  In Acts 5:3-4 it is inferred by Peter that the Holy Spirit is God when he rebukes Ananias, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?… You have not lied to men but to God.”  Indeed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he claims that, “no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God”, for this to be true the Holy Spirit must be God in order to have the ability to be able to know the things of God the Father.  No human has perfect ability to know all things of God.  Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit have this capability within the Godhead itself.  The Bible says that humans will only “know in part” with what knowledge we can acquire from God.

Conclusion

If we believe that all of Scripture is “God breathed” (the whole of the Bible has come to us from

God the Father, through the Holy Spirit) then all of the above verses, especially when they are grouped together show that God is one God in three Persons – with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit being the three, distinct Persons of this triune Godhead – and with all three Persons of this Godhead being co-equal and co-eternal.

1 John 5:7 in the NKJV sums this up in one concise yet profound verse,  “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”

The doctrine of the Trinity is not something that the early Christian church simply made up, the Bible contains countless references to the plurality and unity within the Godhead.  Christians have not ‘perverted’ what the Bible tell us, instead they have sought to define what the Word of God states to be true in the doctrine of the Trinity.